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Macron vows to build back factories, boost France’s economy shaken by pension protests

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

DUNKIRK, France (AP) — Building factories to boost job creation and make France more independent — that’s President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition for the French economy.It’s a big challenge, as France reels from protracted protests, rising food and energy prices and other fallout from the Ukraine war.While Macron woos investors to help “re-industrialize” France and reduce Europe’s dependence on China and the U.S., protesters follow him around the country, banging saucepans to protest economic injustice and his leadership.More than 200 international business leaders are expected Monday at the ‘Choose France’ event staged at the palace of Versailles to promote foreign investment. It follows a series of incentives announced by Macron last week to support innovative industries and transition towards greener technology. They include tax credits in fields like battery production, electric cars, hydrogen and wind power, as well as accelerating authorization for industrial projects. “France is...

Palestinians: Israeli forces fatally shoot man in occupied West Bank

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest death in a spiral of violence that has rocked the region.The Health Ministry said 22-year-old Saleh Sabra was killed after being shot in the chest in the flashpoint West Bank city of Nablus, a frequent site of Israeli operations. The Israeli military had no immediate comment, but Israeli media reported that troops preparing to demolish the home of a Palestinian attacker came under fire and shot back.The death comes after more than a year of relentless violence in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been conducting near-nightly raids in response to Palestinian attacks against Israelis. It also follows a deadly five-day burst of fighting between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip.More than 250 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched the West Bank raids in March of last year, with 112 of those killed ...

Auschwitz museum begins emotional work of conserving 8,000 shoes of murdered children

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) — In a modern conservation laboratory on the grounds of the former Auschwitz camp, a man wearing blue rubber gloves uses a scalpel to scrape away rust from the eyelets of small brown shoes worn by children before they were murdered in gas chambers.Colleagues at the other end of a long work table rub away dust and grime, using soft cloths and careful circular motions on the leather of the fragile objects. The shoes are then scanned and photographed in a neighboring room and catalogued in a database.The work is part of a two-year effort launched last month to preserve 8,000 children’s shoes at the former concentration and extermination camp where German forces murdered 1.1 million people during World War II. Most of the victims were Jews killed in dictator Adolf Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe.The site was located during the war in a part of Poland occupied by German forces and annexed to the German Reich. Today it is a memorial and museu...

‘They want change’: Opposition parties win big in Thailand election on promises of reform

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Ballots tallied Monday showed voters in Thailand wanted change after nine years under a former general who took power in a coup, with the main opposition parties easily besting other contenders in the general election.The opposition Move Forward Party outperformed even optimistic projections and appeared poised to capture almost all 33 House seats in the capital Bangkok. Along with the Pheu Thai Party, the favored opposition group, Move Forward campaigned for reform of the military and the monarchy. Move Forward put those issues closer to the heart of its platform, earning a more radical reputation. Its outspoken support for minor reforms of the monarchy, while winning younger voters, antagonized conservatives committed to the royal institution.Incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who came to power in a 2014 coup, was blamed for a stuttering economy, pandemic response shortcomings and thwarting democratic reforms — a particular sore point with younger voters.“T...

Sudanese fleeing fighting in their homeland face uncertain future, unsure of return

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

ASWAN, Egypt (AP) — The café outside Aswan station was full of Sudanese families, surrounded by luggage and waiting for the train to Cairo, the next leg in their arduous journey escaping violence that has torn apart their country and overturned their lives.Aswan, the Egyptian city closest to the border with Sudan, has become a way station for tens of thousands of Sudanese fleeing fighting between Sudan’s military and rival paramilitary force. The displaced arrive exhausted after days on the chaotic roads. Now, they must figure out how to navigate a future that is suddenly uncertain, with no idea when they will be able to return home.At Aswan’s Nasser café, a Sudanese university professor Naglaa al-Khair Ahmed was still stunned by the sudden explosion of violence on April 15, after escalating tensions between Sudan’s two top generals.“We never imagined that verbal skirmishes would end up with war,” she said. “We didn’t expect that a decision (to go to) war was so easy to ...

China's land-sea trade corridor shows strong vitality

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

A rail-sea intermodal freight train recently departed from southwest China's Chongqing municipality, running along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor for Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The train carried 100 containers of automobiles, motorcycles and engines, which would be later shipped to destinations in Southeast Asia via Qinzhou Port, writes Liu Hui, People's Daily.During the Chinese Lunar New Year period this year, the year-on-year growth in the number of trains running along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor set a new record.The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a new channel of international trade jointly established by regions in western China and ASEAN members.In September 2017, the first train of a regular sea-rail transit route linking China and Singapore, the former version of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, departed from Chongqing.The southward route took Chongqing as its logistic and operational ...

India cannot suppress the sentiments of Aazadi in Kashmir

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

“Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it.” Joseph GoebbelsThe fallacious statement made by the most celebrated Indian diplomat, Dr. Jaishankar, minister of external affairs, during SCO meeting in Goa on May 5, 2023, that “Jammu-Kashmir Was, Is And Will Always Be India's Integral Part,” deserves some clarification. It also needs to be supplemented by some observations from the Kashmiri perspective, writes World Kashmir Awareness Forum Secretary General Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai. First, the assertion makes a mockery of the United Nations Charter and International Law. Dr. Jaishankar knows it well that his erroneous outburst regarding Kashmir violates the United Nations Security Council resolutions which were agreed upon by both India and Pakistan. Indian official position was articulated by Sir Goplaswamy Ayyangar, Indian delegate to the United Nations at the Security Council on January 15, 1948 that “the question of the future status of Kashmir, whether she should withdraw fro...

Video captures crash at end of high-speed pursuit in Palmdale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

Video captured the dramatic end of a high-speed pursuit Sunday in Palmdale.  It is unclear why the pursuit was initiated, but authorities with California Highway Patrol told KTLA that the chase began in San Bernardino County. The suspect, driving a black Audi, can be seen in the video attempting to avoid a spike strip thrown in the roadway by CHP. The driver veers off the road, quickly loses control of the vehicle and slams into the back of an innocent motorist in a Toyota Rav4 near the intersection of 50th Street East and Avenue N. The hood of the Audi can be seen in the footage flying up and blocking the driver’s view. Both the Audi and the Rav4 travel several more feet before coming to a stop. Video captured the moment a pursuit suspect lost control of his vehicle in Palmdale and crashed into another motorist on May 14, 2023. (Don Luis Meza)A passenger in the pursuit vehicle is then seen getting out of the vehicle, raising his hands and dropping to his knees as CHP offi...

China condena a cadena perpetua a un ciudadano estadounidense acusado de espionaje

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

(CNN) — Un ciudadano estadounidense de 78 años fue condenado a cadena perpetua por un tribunal chino acusado de espionaje.John Shing-Wan Leung, también residente permanente en Hong Kong, fue declarado culpable de espionaje y condenado a cadena perpetua este lunes por el Tribunal Popular Intermedio de la ciudad oriental de Suzhou, según un comunicado publicado en la cuenta de redes sociales del tribunal.Leung fue detenido el 15 de abril de 2021 por las autoridades de seguridad del Estado en Suzhou, provincia de Jiangsu, según el breve comunicado, que no ofrecía detalles sobre los cargos que se le imputaban.El tribunal también confiscó bienes personales por valor de 500.000 yuanes (US$ 71.797), añadió el comunicado.China expande su ya amplia ley de contraespionaje. Expertos dicen que las empresas extranjeras deberían estar preocupadasLas autoridades chinas y los medios de comunicación estatales no han revelado anteriormente ninguna información sobre la detención de Leung ni sobr...

El ciclón Mocha azota la costa de Bangladesh y Myanmar

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:13:36 GMT

(CNN) — El ciclón Mocha azotó este domingo la costa entre Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh) y el municipio de Kyaukpyu (Myanmar), convirtiéndose en uno de los más fuertes registrados en el país, según la Oficina de Coordinación de Asuntos Humanitarios (OCHA) de la ONU en Myanmar.A lo largo del domingo se registraron lluvias torrenciales, marejadas y fuertes vientos en todas las zonas afectadas, con inundaciones en las zonas bajas de Rakhine, sobre todo en Sittwe, la capital del estado, y sus alrededores, según la actualización de la OCHA en Myanmar del domingo.El ciclón Mocha se fortalece en India y se dirige hacia el campo de refugiados más grande del mundoVientos extremadamente fuertes derribaron tendidos eléctricos, arrancado árboles y dañado y destruido casas, dijo la OCHA en Myanmar. Las comunicaciones con las zonas afectadas son limitadas tras los graves daños sufridos por las torres de telecomunicaciones, según la OCHA.Miles de personas pasaron el domingo refugiadas en cen...